Four Brothers Online - Chapter One - Sword Art Online
by emerindyl
Summary: Four cousins, more like brothers; find themselves among the fortunate ten thousand at the launch of SAO. One will make a terrible and lethal mistake setting him on a course of self-destruction. Following a different experience in the same death game. Four brothers does not involve the main characters save the occasional distant cameo. This is a whole new SAO experience. Enjoy!
"Did you get it?"

"Well I haven't been lining up since yesterday just to watch everyone else get it, did I?"

Takumi was older than the rest of us, so not having school to worry about he had been out all night. We weren't allowed to line up with him, and the chance to be one of the first ten thousand people to experience the full launch of Sword Art Online wasn't a good enough excuse for our Aunt to let us join him. He was barely halfway through the front door when his younger brother Riku and my older brother Yuto ambushed him.

"Let's see it then," Riku's hands clasped behind his back, but his older brother wrapped his arms around his shopping bag like it was filled with gold.

"In time little brother" he brushed past Riku stopping only to pet him on the head, messing up his hair like he always did.

"Come on Takumi, your holding out on us, we've been waiting all morning," Yuto and Riku were the same age, and though we were only cousins, he and Riku were often mistaken for twins. This was more so because we all had the same last name and lived in the same house rather than their appearance.

Being the youngest I stood back and kept my hands to myself. Takumi winked at me with a smirk and jerked his head at the front door, which I now realised he'd left open. I started towards the door looking back at him for direction, he nodded so I quietly slunk from the room. In the driveway was Takumi's car, the back doors wide open. I slipped around the front garden and peered into the back seat; three more bags, identical to the one Takumi had been carrying.

No way.

"NO WAY!?" I heard Yuto and Riku's voices loud from the front door. I managed to grab one of the bags and jumped out of the way before the two seventeen-year-olds pushed each other and shoved their way across the yard and into the back seat where they reappeared a moment later each holding their own packages.

"How did you keep this a secret?!" Yuto was already back through the front door with Riku hot on his heels. I peered into the bag, there was a large white box with 'NERVEGEAR' printed in black on the side. As well as a smaller package with an image on the side, it looked like a flying mountain, made of metal, with propellers around all sides and three very large letters; SAO.

Back inside there was rubbish everywhere. Riku already had the NerveGear helmet on his head, though it wasn't plugged in yet, he looked a bit like a motorcyclist from some futuristic movie; the SAO game packaging in his hands.

"You better clean that up little brother, mum won't thank me for the mess when she gets home, and she'll pull you out of the game to punish you," Takumi was always the father. His and Riku's father had died in the same earthquake that made my brother and I orphans ten years ago. We'd lived with them and their mother ever since; it'd been tough on her, and Takumi had stepped up for the most part as the bigger brother and father the three of us and our aunt needed him to be.

"Ok fine," Riku said without making any move to pick up his mess.

"It says here that it uses microwave signals to connect your brain to the game, that's psychotic" Yuto'a constant use of the word 'psychotic' to describe something cool was somewhat unnerving.

"I guess that means if you stay plugged in too long your head my explode like micro waved eggs," Riku responded with equal enthusiasm. We all laughed at this comment, we were all there when Yuto microwaved a bowl of eggs on Riku's suggestion, and the moment he poked it with a metal fork the egg exploded from the bowl, and seemed to no longer exist.

"Are you saving it for the new year, Haru?" Takumi poked me as he moved past with the NerveGear manual in his hand, "You know the game goes live in just under an hour."

"How did you get four copies?" the question had been burning in the back of my mind since I saw the bags in the car, "I thought it was limit one per customer since they're only selling ten thousand hard copies for launch?"

Takumi winked, "I know some guys who got to beta test it, they lined up with me and pretended to be new players,"

"That's a little shady, don't you think?" it came out of my mouth before I realised how ungrateful I sounded.

"Hey Haru, do you even want your copy, I know some people who would _kill_ to get their hands on one, if you don't want it" Riku was always very defensive of his big brother.

"Are you ladies going to stand around chatting over your petticoats, or are we doing this?" Yuto came to my rescue in the way he always did; making sure he didn't actually cross Riku.

"Thank you Takumi, I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright kiddo," Takumi stopped me from apologising. "Riku is right though, if we want to be there for launch we need to get plugged in,"

I was the first out of the room, leaving the other three and moving towards my little room at the back of the house. It was small, mostly empty and there wasn't a lot of natural light. I always liked it that way, probably the gamer in me. I rummaged through the packaging and soon had everything set up.

"Hey Haru," I looked up just as my bedroom door slid open. It was Yuto. "Oh good, you're ready, game goes live in five,"

"I know," I told him without making eye contact.

"Listen I'm sorry about before-"

"I know you are, you always are." I cut him off.

"You know you've got a lot of attitude for a fifteen-year-old"

"I'm saving up," I responded without smiling, "Maybe I'll have as much as your buddy Riku when I'm your age."

Yuto just stood there and I could tell he knew this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere we had time to take it right now.

"Just letting you know," he said after a moment where his eyes had that same look of defeat they always did when he knew I understood he needed Riku's friendship more than his little brothers. "I'm going to use my usual username"

"Got it, but I don't know that Shooter makes a lot of sense in a sword fighting MMO" I kept my tone level, he needed to know the argument was over and done with for now.

"You're going with Caelarion as usual?"

"Wouldn't work with my streaming channel if I didn't," I smirked.

"You can't stream SAO yet,"

"Yet."

"Suit yourself, see you in there" he started to move away,

"What about Riku and Yuto?" I called after him and saw him pause in the halway.

"You know Riku never uses the same username twice," he shouted back before moving away quickly.

Thirty seconds to go.

"I know that," I said to no one in particular. Riku burned alot of bridges in MMO's; he'd never risk using the same name; someone would recognise him as the player killer he always played, and while pvp was allowed in SAO from everything I'd heard; no one liked a player killer - except other PKers.

Takumi's face appeared at the door, "Twenty - two seconds!" he said with a cheesy grin on his face that I couldn't help mirroring, "I'll find you in game Caelarion,"

"Sound goods" I pulled the NerveGear onto my head and lay down on my bed. It took me a moment to get comfortable.

The clock on my bedside desk ticked away slowly.

The game launched.

It was unlike anything I had ever experienced before; so this was full dive. It was only the loading menu but the impact on my senses visual, auditory and kinaesthetic was incredible.

"WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE"

The voice seemed to come from everywhere, I automatically went to move my hands to my ears, but I didn't have any. For the moment anywhere I was a sentient being in a menu. I thought my username at the input section and it was spelt perfectly right in front of my eyes. I had a moment more to consider the appearance of my avatar and then a bright light blinded me for a moment before I felt my feet hit pavement and the sound of nine thousand other voices cheering as a world populated around us.

I flexed my hands; they were much bigger than my own, but they reacted to my thoughts the way my own hands would. It felt so realistic; I couldn't see a reflection but I knew that meant my avatar had populated from the moments thought the game understood. I towered over most of the people around me.

"Caelarion, trust you to test the limits of the avatar height," I looked a little lower than eye level where there stood a man with long flaming red hair in basic orange tunic and hoes and simple iron armour; the hilt of a broadsword poking just above his shoulder.

"Shooter," I nodded down at my big brother by way of greeting, his avatar looked nothing like him IRL.

"At least Tak... er Theobold will be able to see you no matter where he spawned in this place, you're easily the tallest person here," Shooter looked around, It was now that I noticed the player health bars around the side of people's faces. It was as if they weren't there if you didn't focus on them.

"Theobold?"

"Well he couldn't use MasterAjax again after the last game when they realised he was brothers with... what did he call himself on Warmachine Online?" I knew he was talking about Riku, and I remembered that username. He killed me more times in that game than anyone else did.

"It doesn't matter I guess," I was distracted by the flashing blue particle graphic of all the people still logging in. "He'll find us, I don't doubt,"

The courtyard was massive, surmounted by archway colonnades skirting the edges. I was busy admiring the views when a felt a hand come to rest on my arm.

"Hello handsome," the feeling of contact with another player was weird, realistic, but almost dreamlike. I looked down and saw a girl, long white hair and wearing the briefest of starter armour.

"Um... hello Miss?" was about all I could muster before Shooter started laughing loud enough for the people around us to stare, "What did I miss?"

"There's nothing to miss," Shooter was still laughing as he sided up to the girl who had a smug look planted firmly on her lips and he playfully punched her in the arm.

"Hey what are you doing-" I started before it dawned on me.

"There's nothing to miss, because this is no Miss." my brothers red hair flickered statically as he moved around the girl openly admiring her with a boldness I wouldn't have expected if I didn't already know that this girl was my Riku.

"You like what you see hot stuff?" she hedged and I rolled my eyes and shook her hand off my arm. She laughed at that and slipped into the most ridiculous feminine pose at his disposal.

"Your brother is going to bust a rib when he sees you," Shooter was laughing. This was exactly the kind of thing I should have expected from Riku.

"What about my ID?" she smirked and flicked his player card to Shooter virtually.

"Haru... " I looked up in shock wondering why my brother would speak my real world name, but then I saw the little screen floating in front of Shooter's eyes.

"Haruchan?!" I felt the heat rising in my neck and my heart speeding up; forgetting that I shouldn't have expected to feel it.

The game's engine for displaying anger was very good.

"Well I don't know many girls, so I had to go with the first girls name I could find," she said grinning at me.

"You're unbelievable-" I started toward her, my hands rising from my side to lash out. I probably would have done something really stupid if Shooter hadn't been there.

"Come on Ri... er Bro, thats not cool man," Shooter was doing his best to hold back my giant avatar to my surprise he was having a harder time at it than I expected.

We really were on the same level in this world.

"You're an asshole," I spat at him, before turning and starting off angrily.

"Hey wait little bro- I mean Caelarion,"

"Little Caelarion, that's a great nickname for someone with an avatar that big," Haruchan was managing to match that same condescending expression with this female face that he managed so many times with his own.

"Caelarion please" now Shooter was holding onto the back of my armour with both hands. I remembered at this point I had also spawned with a sword. I reached over my back and placed my hand on the hilt.

"Relax" Haruchan was still grinning, "You don't have to run me through Caelarion, I'll log out and create a new avatar when I do some damage with this one, ok?"

I stopped; realising what this gesture might have looked like. I had really only been feeling for the blade to pull it out for inspection. But Haruchan had obviously seen it as a threat. And in this game, our levels were matched.

"Haruchan?" a fourth voice, familiar appeared, his avatar simple, short black hair like his own IRL. Takumi. "That's not cool, Riku,"

Haruchan put his player ID away and sniffed the air flicking her long hair behind her in a huff "Watch it _Theobold_." Haruchan didn't like hearing his own name. it wasn't polite after all and I was supposed to be the butt of this joke.

"You and I talked about this, we picked a good username for you" Theobold was the one smirking this time. Haruchan's expression became visibly sour.

 _What was that about?_

"Whatever bro," she turned to see where everyone began moving out of the square, "Shall we gentlemen?" she skipped off with a flair of her skirts.

"Trust you to pick a girl," Shooter was smiling again defusing the tension.

"I know right?" She smirked, the sour look completely gone now, "Think of all the fools who want to help a poor defenceless chick," she was laughing. I didn't like the high feminine pitch defused with his sarcasm. It just seemed wrong somehow.

"Can we get moving, or do you want to drool all over yourself all day?" I said, still mad.

"Yeah bro, if I wanted to watch you drooling over your own appearance, I'd have stayed at home," Theobold winked at me, a gesture that didn't carry the same weight as it did when his avatar was a foot and a half shorter than mine.

The markets around the square were interesting enough, it seemed the swords we spawned with were pretty standard, there was plenty of upgraded weapons for sale, but the money all of us were spawned with didn't come close to affording anything more than some simple healing crystals. So after pocketing what little we could afford Theobold led the way out of town.

"Town of Beginnings" Shooter read on a sign as we passed through an archway into the fields beyond, "Appropriate,"

Haruchan already had her sword in her hand. A rapier. She said she looked more feminine that way. "All part of the trap" she had smirked when Theobold had asked her about it.

"So there shouldn't be many high levelled mobs this close to the Town of Beginnings," Theobold was explaining. He had a guidebook open in his hands and had been reading it from the moment we'd left the spawn courtyard, "Though at our levels everything is pretty much high levelled by comparison,"

"Hogs?" Shooter gestured towards a field nearby where a couple of players, some guy with black hair and his red-haired friend were picking off Hogs one by one.

"Seems like a solid place to start" Theolbold closed his book, "Let's move away from these guys though, pvp is allowed and I'm not interested in taking on anyone else at our levels."

"But there's four of us" Haruchan had that look in her eyes. The one I always knew meant that he was up to no good.

 _The game engine for expression was really impressive._

"We don't know how long they've been out here, even two of them at level two or even three would be too risky at this point,"

"I'm going to create a new avatar anyway, I don't care if this one dies," she skipped a little closer to the two unknown players though they were still a ways off.

"Don't be stupid little brother, this way" Theobold didn't even entertain the idea as he started off in the opposite direction of the two players who would remain unknown today, "These fields are pretty vast, let's stay away from others for a day or so,"

The particles of another defeated Hog shattered off into the air as the day wore on, my sword skill was still glowing on the blade as the particles faded and the rewards screen popped up in front of my eyes again.

"The spawn rate is pretty amped up" I commented to Shooter as he swung his sword around his fingers, the sword skills activating again and again as he did it.

"Theobold says it's because there are so many players in the area, good news for us is that they're mainly all in the town," he responded, and he was right, apart from the two players Haruchan wanted to mess with, we hadn't run into anyone else.

"They'll all be out soon enough and these fields will be picked clean" I noticed that was certainly not the case for now, herds of hogs grazed here and there and beynd, "Sound strategy would be to move on as soon as our levels increase a bit more,"

"Hey, what the heck Haruchan?!" the alarm in Theolbold's voice drew both of our attention and we moved quickly towards the two brothers. Haruchan was dancing on the spot swinging her rapier around like a whip. It ripped through the air glowing purple as she moved it. Theobold had a red particle cut mark down the side of his face.

"Did it hurt?" Haruchan seemed genuinely curious about that.

"Well no, but that's not the point," Theobold rarely sounded angry, but his avatar wasn't concealing anything.

"Sorry bro, you go too close" she giggled. It really agitated me how he played up being a girl even when none of his potential victims were around.

It is so unnecessary .

"I'm not wasting a healing crystal on this, you give me one of yours" Theobold held his hand out to Haruchan.

"You'll recover on your own," she hedged, showing no interest in handing anything over.

"Bro I'm serious, you just cut a quarter of my health bar,"

"For real?" she grinned and flicked her rapier again, "I can't wait for pvp, I want to see what this chick is capable of,"

"Once a ..." Shooter was laughing, but I didn't think it was funny at all. How many time's was I going to have to respawn just because Haruchan got bored. I shuddered thinking about him using my name.

"If you're going to pull that shit, I'm not joining any guild you're in," I stated categorically,

"Who said anything about you being invited to _our_ Guild?" she jeered, a mean look in her eyes. I turned my back on her.

"Hey Little Caelarion, I'm talking at you, didn't you know it was rude to turn your back on a lady,"

I felt something jar my shoulder and my health bar dipped a little "Hey!" I jumped and rolled out of reach.

Good agility engine. And Theobold wasnt lying, there was an angry red particle gash across my arm, but it didn't hurt at all.

"What the crap Riku?!" I shouted angrily.

"The name's Haruchan, I'm a girl with a girl's name" she moved purposefully towards me flicking her rapier, "So shoulder's aren't as valuable as faces,"

"Come on bro, that's enough," Shooter was moving towards us but Theobold got their first.

"Bro, why do you have to be an idiot, we just got here," he had his hand on Haruchan's shoulders.

"Come on _Theobold_ , it's just a game, and I'm tired of farming pigs," she said flicking her ivory hair dramatically, "I want to watch something squeal that's a little bigger than a pig," she started towards me again.

I drew my sword and slid into a defensive stance.

"If you come at me, I'm not holding back" I could hear my heart pumping in my ears.

Haruchan whipped his rapier through the air the tip seemed almost fluid but I matched him and deflected it off to the side.

"Big man's grown a pair huh?" she laughed shrilly, sounding almost crazy and raising her rapier again.

"Riku enough fooling around!" It was Theobold who's back was suddenly before my eyes. There was the sharp sting of metal scraping on metal as the Haruchan's rapier stabbed around the breast plate and sprouted before my eyes through the back of Theobold's shoulder. The red particle effect looked about as much like blood as a neon blooded avatar might be able to. Theobold groaned as his health bar dipped into the red and emptied.

"You idiot," was the last thing any of us heard before his avatar shattered into multicoloured particles, before vanishing completely.

Shooter had his arms crossed and sighed. An expression Haruchan mirrored as he withdrew his rapier from the now empty air in front of him and sheathed it. "Note to self, a sword to the heart is pretty lethal. Well that's not my fault, any fool knows not to stand side on when your armour is barely covering your chest"

"Well he was already down twenty-five percent," Shooter supplied, "He's going to be pissed with you when he respawns"

"I wonder where the respawn point is," I hadn't realised but at some point I too had sheathed my sword.

"The town maybe?" I supplied, there didn't appear to be any obvious landmarks nearby like most fantasy MMO's.

"It took us about half an hour to get out here," Shooter added, "If he respawns in the town you might want to get a head start now, you might be able to avoid having to respawn yourself today,"

"At least until you logout," it was my turn to smirk,

Haruchan grumbled, he knew he was in for it, "Well he shouldn't have gotten in my way,"

"You shouldn't have been tooling around," I looked towards the town, there were other people hanging around the entrance but no one obviously making their hasty way in our direction. "I wonder which direction he'll come from," I said again.

"I could always finish what I started and you can calm him down on your way back with him," he wasn't kidding either by the way his hand rested on his hilt.

"Riku," Shooter admonished.

"How many times do I have to tell you, _Shooter_ , I'm a _girl_ , with a _girl's_ name!"

Bells sounded in the distance. Loud heavy booming bells.

"Is that a clock tower?" I don't know who said it, it might even have been me, but there was a blinding light and I suddenly felt sentient again.

"Did we just respawn?" I didn't know who's voice it was but the growing babble and random flashing of particle lights gave me the sudden sense of deja vu.

We were back in the Town of Beginnings. Back in the courtyard where everyone arrived. I could see Haruchan and Shooter not far from me, but Theobold was nowhere in sight. Everyone was here, there were thousands of people teleporting into the courtyard.

"What is going on?"

"What is that flashing icon up there in the sky?"

"Does that say System Announcement?"


End file.
